>way over engineered his design.  The company I flew for regularly
>operated a LR-23 (certificated for 41,000 ft.) at 50,000 feet on
>photo mapping missions in Latin America, and often cruised the
>24s at mach .85 or .86 (certificated for .82).

Sounds like you flew for Air America.

>This accident is difficult to understand ... both pilots should have
>had their oxygen masks around their necks during climb out and had
>no difficulty in donning their masks in the event of an explosive
>decompression.  If there was a failure in the pressurization system

Except that both appear to have minimal experience with the type.  From
what I saw in the paper today, the captain had only 40 hours in the type
and they had no idea if the copilot had any.

>Pure off the wall speculation:  In these days of weird behavior I
>wouldn't be too surprised if it turns out to be murder/suicide.  Dead

That would be sad, indeed.

Andy

==================================================================
 Eternity is only a heartbeat away - are you ready?  Ask me how!
------------------------------------------------------------------
andy@rc-hydros.com      http://www.rc-hydros.com     - Race Boats
andy@montanadesign.com  http://www.montanadesign.com - Electronics
==================================================================